Seasons Came & Changed The Time
by Bruteaous
Summary: AU Growing up is hard enough but what is it like in a town full of closeted story book characters? Will Mulan and Aurora survive high school and find each other or will they crash and burn? OCs Princesses Jasmine (Jade Ali-Kumar), Rapunzel (Hana Blumenthal) are also in attendance and dealing with dating and hormones.
1. Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

**Seasons Came & Changed The Time**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Once Upon a Time _or any of the characters here nor do I intend to make any monetary gain out of the writing of this story. It just keeps the voice in my head quiet for a few days is all. :)

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**One: Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down**

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It was "meat" surprise day at lunch for the second time in one week. Apparently, whoever ordered the food for Storybrooke High weren't too keen on variety. Mayor Mills had given many a speech on the importance of education for the town's children at City Hall's weekly meetings, but apparently nothing of note was said about the nutritional value of the school lunches.

Aurora grimaced as she pushed the scoop of vegetable medley across the plastic bed of the tray with her fork and further from the questionable gelatinous mash that was apparently meat based in origin but which she was sure she would never feel sure enough to eat.

"I just…I thought it meant something to him, you know?" the small blonde across from her simpered like a puppy that had just been kicked.

"I wouldn't worry, Faleen. Paul Langton is a dick. He'll get what's coming to him sooner or later, I promise you." Jade growled, the words striking Aurora almost like a vow in their sincerity.

Aurora blinked as if coming out of a haze.

Slowly, she took in the cafeteria and the hustle and bustle of students around her as if it was the first time she'd seen it in a while. She'd become so lost in her own musings on how unappetizing her own meal was that she'd completely zoned out of the conversation her friends were having. Faleen Mann—usually blonde and bouncy Faleen—looked utterly miserable as she leaned her chin into her hands and blinked back recent tears. Next to her sat Jade, a slightly darker beauty who had her arm slung around Faleen's shoulders in a consoling manner. And on Faleen's other side, sat a quietly considering Hana Blumenthal. Closest to Aurora sat Hua Mulan, who was also in another one of her characteristically brooding moods.

"Karma's a bitch," Hana volunteered with a shrug. Her voice was rusty from imposed silence and despite her attempt to smile, the girl's hazel eyes always held an underlying reflection of sadness.

Hana was beautiful and kind and a wonderful friend, but her Aunt Alexandrine kept her locked up in her attic room off of school hours, so afraid she was that Hana would make a run for it at the first chance she got. So Hana always seemed out of the practice of conversing because aside from other students at school and the family dog, Perdita, she had never been allowed any proper companions. It was a shame really, Aurora thought. Of course, she had always had her younger brother, Julius, and sister, Amalie, for company so Aurora had never really been forced to wonder what a life in seclusion would be like, at least until she had met Hana.

Then again Aurora had to have led a pretty sheltered life growing up because before meeting Jade, she hadn't known it was possible for anyone to have two dads let alone that two men could be married and raising a child together. Just goes to show the blinders a small town can put on your perspective, Aurora mused.

However, Jade was just like any other girl in most respects. She was a decent student and more interested in the glorious goings on of an almost adult life than of what was happening in the larger world. But Jade was also exotically gorgeous, with legs for miles, and long waist length black hair that any girl would kill for. Jade had always enjoyed a level of attention that seemed to eclipse everyone around her, but unlike many of the more athletic or popular girls who ran with the richer or most handsome boys who felt like they had the right to be arrogant, Jade was down to earth, fearlessly loyal to her friends, stubborn, and hot tempered. She could also be vindictive on her friends' behalf, which was what was apparently happening right now.

"That miserable tosser!" Jade fumed, as angrily as if she had been the one who had been treated like dirt by the guy she liked and another a tear slipped down Faleen's cheek before she quickly rubbed it away. "I wish I could just wring his rotten little neck. I wish for once we were living in Jordan where Baba's brothers live. They'd relish a chance to punish a boy who'd done me wrong. If only they could be brought here with their work machetes and kitchen knives. Paul would be singing a different tune then, preferably one much higher pitched, and it would serve him right."

"What did he do that was so horrible?" Aurora asked, confused at the severity of the tension engulfing the table like wildfire.

The whole group was silent for a few seconds and Aurora's cheeks reddened at the incredulous looks she was receiving from the most wounded of their cohort and Jade who was obviously her protector at the moment. Finally, the scrutiny abated somewhat.

"Are you serious?" Jade asked, her voice holding no annoyance or venom just disbelief that Aurora could have missed Faleen's whole sad ass story when it had taken up most of their lunchtime. "You haven't been listening this whole time?"

Aurora's cheeks reddened a shade darker at the revelation. Finally, Mulan took pity on her.

"Faleen has a crush on Paul Langton. Paul asked Faleen out Friday night and they made out in his dad's car. Well, Faleen thought they were dating now or whatever," Mulan explained dismissively, not even flinching when a hard glare from Jade was levelled at her for seeming about as detached from the situation as Aurora was, "but then when she approached Paul this morning, he said that it was just a date and he was going out with a different girl tonight, implying that she meant nothing to him, hence the heartbreak."

As Aurora absorbed everything Mulan was saying, she looked across the table at her friends. Jade had her arms crossed over her chest as if restraining them would keep her from crossing the cafeteria and smothering Paul Langton in his mashed potatoes. Hana had set her tray aside and was reading through their World History homework already to help the time pass, lost inside her own little world.

Faleen looked just miserable with her red rimmed eyes and sniffly nose and, after hearing her entire story, Aurora agreed that the tiny blonde had good reason to feel that way. Last, Aurora's attention settled on Mulan beside her. Usually, anti-social by anyone's standards, Mulan tended only to contribute to their conversations if she was solicited to do so otherwise she sat and watched the people around her or gauged the reactions of her friends while they prattled away over which thirty something male actor was hottest in a movie that had just come out or what new songs on the radio were worth listening to.

For now, Mulan had shifted her focus off of Aurora, which was also typical of her. Even when Aurora would seem to want the other girl's attention, Mulan was careful not to make eye contact or look at her too long. Instead, she usually looked anywhere, but Aurora or down at her feet or her balled up fists like she was doing now. Aurora frowned. In this moment of neglect by the person she most treasured, Aurora could understand how Faleen was feeling.

Aurora looked away from Faleen and reached across the table to grasp one of Faleen's hands in her own.

"I'm sorry, Faleen. It'll get better soon. I promise it will." Aurora said, forcing a brave smile.

And little white lie though it might turn out to be, Aurora could at least hope that things really would get better.

* * *

The last few classes of the day inched along at a snail's pace, but eventually they were over and every bored and half-asleep student came alive at the prospect of freedom. The halls filled immediately with the loudness of scuffling feet and elated conversations between friends who hadn't seen one another since lunch (a long time to a teenager). Aurora and Hana both emerged into the stampede from World History and let the current of bodies carry them to their lockers in the social studies wing. Taking an opening when it presented itself, Aurora took Hana's hand and led her against the traffic towards their shared locker.

"I swear it feels like there are more people in this hall every day," Aurora grumbled, dropping her backpack as Hana quickly spun through the lock combination on their locker.

"Maybe there are," Hana shrugged, managing to catch a stray text book as it vaulted out of the shared space at an odd angle. "Stranger things have happened."

"Yeah, I guess," Aurora agreed.

From then forward, they moved without speaking, each gathering the texts they needed for the night's homework and the folders and notebooks that corresponded to each subject. Once they finished, the chaos around them had simmered down enough to where only a scattering of students were left idling about and it became easier to breathe in the constricted space.

"Is your Aunt picking you up today?" Aurora asked distractedly, spotting Mulan, Jade, and Faleen approaching from the wing where their lockers were located out of the corner of her vision.

Hana's passive expression stiffened as she adjusted the straps of her backpack across her shoulders.

"She can try, but today was a bad day. I think I'll walk."

Aurora's eyebrows rose at that, but she didn't say anything. Aurora, Mulan, and Jade all lived very close to Main Street where their families owned businesses and often walked to and from school together, but Hana's house was down a couple of winding side streets and the thought of her walking the extra mileage alone—even in a friendly small seaside town like Storybrooke—bothered her. But Hana very rarely got to be able to make her own choices and if it would make Hana happy just to be able to walk and think about the day's events, then Aurora would support her in it.

"So are any of you going to the Rabbit Hole tonight? It's 18 and Under Night and anyone 16 to 18 doesn't have to pay a cover charge." Faleen asked, seeming completely recovered from her romantic misery.

"Wish I could, but Baba and Abba need me to help at the Hookah Lounge tonight." Jade said. "That girl Dee Dee Murphy they hired has been missing her night shifts so I have been picking up the slack."

"I probably won't go either. Mr. Robinson really slammed us with homework in algebra." Aurora said.

Faleen's devil-may-care smile fell into a disappointed frown. It wasn't as fun having to go out on the town by yourself. "What about you Mulan? Hana? There's this older girl, Lacey, who does body shots on the billiards table. It's super funny to watch."

Hana just grunted. She knew she was being included in the conversation as a point of politeness because her friends didn't want to leave her out. Everyone knew she couldn't get out of her attic room at night if she tried, not with the thick bolted cedar wood door and the iron bars on the room's only window. She was taking a risk as it was leaving through the opposite doors that she knew her aunt would be waiting at to pick her up and walking herself home. The risk was almost so frightening that Hana thought it might be better if she took the opportunity to run away, but she wasn't eighteen yet and there was no where she could run that her aunt wouldn't be able to get her back. It wasn't worth it, not yet at least.

Aurora looked to Mulan expectantly, watching as Mulan squirmed under her scrutiny.

"I have better things to do than watch half naked women let questionable men suck alcohol out of their belly buttons," Mulan answered with a grimace.

"You guys are no fun," Faleen pouted.

They walked out of the school without hurry, enjoying the meandering walk down residential streets in the warmth of the early autumn sun and meager traffic. They passed the cannery and turned onto the road that would lead to the main stretch of restaurants and shops the populated the Main Street. Jade said her goodbyes first and disappeared down a side alley that led to the back entrance of _The Arabian Nights: Restaurant, Hookah Lounge, & Spice Shop_. Mulan's parents owned the only Chinese restaurant and takeaway operation in town (which was a cliché she was aware—but hey what could she do?). It was across the street from Granny's diners, neighboring Dr. Hopper's psychological practice and the Huas lived in the apartments above.

Yet, even though they were at her stop, Mulan didn't leave the group just yet.

"You're sure about not going out tonight?" Faleen asked again.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Aurora said, with a sad smile.

Mulan didn't glorify the question with a response, just glared. Hana looked uncomfortably awkward standing around on the street where anyone could see her.

"Alright, but you guys are missing out." Faleen teased, back to her bubbly self.

Faleen took the hint, said her goodbyes and walked the extra block to her own house.

"I sh—should go," Hana finally said, feeling weird having to say that instead of just leaving, but she figured that would be rude and the last thing she wanted to do was be rude to her friends.

"You need someone to walk the extra bit with you? I'm sure we could." Aurora offered with a wide smile.

Mulan didn't say anything, but she nodded her consent at Aurora's words. But instead of being thrilled, Hana's cheeks colored. She knew the offer was made out of kindness and concern for her welfare, but it made her feel like a child that needed minding and she'd wanted to walk to escape that feeling.

"No, I—I can make it alone. See you both at school tomorrow."

And with that Hana turned and started down the fork that would eventually lead to her aunt's house.

Mulan and Aurora stood there for a few seconds more, not quite daring to make eye contact. Then Mulan turned, intent on disappearing into her home to get out of this awkward moment, but Aurora was having none of it. The former princess grabbed her warrior's hand and yanked her down the same alley Jade had disappeared down. Mulan let herself be led. There was nothing she could say to deter Aurora when she wanted something and nothing that Mulan wouldn't do to make the other girl happy, even at the expense of her own good sense. Even if she knew better. Even if she knew that it would be better for both of them if she didn't.

Mulan opened her mouth to say something—anything—but before she could, the smaller brunette pushed her up against the brick wall of a building and captured Mulan's lips in a longed for kiss. It was the thing Mulan had both wanted and dreaded all weekend long. Ever since last Friday when they had walked one another home and ended the afternoon making out pushed up against the back entrance of her family's restaurant, Aurora had been a constant on her mind. If her grandmother's voice—screaming in Chinese at another hopeless employee in the kitchen—hadn't been loud enough to rouse the dead and wake Mulan from the blissful spell of Aurora's hot mouth on hers, she didn't know what they might have done next.

The way the other girl's sky blue eyes shined when she even barely smiled, the succulent softness of her lips that seemed almost like velvet—like they were too soft to be real, and the cinnamon color of her shoulder length hair that refracted natural blondish highlights when the sunlight hit them just the right way. The way the girl was beautiful and yet humble, confident and yet kind, hard and yet soft at the same time—almost like a princess out of one of her grandmother's fairy tales. Everything about Aurora was perfect to Mulan, perfect and forbidden and impossible.

After a few moments, they separated, both girls gasping for air and smiling despite the burning in their lungs and the simple fact that anyone could see them from their barely secluded position in the middle of the alleyway. Despite her reservations about their growing relationship, Mulan grinned like an idiot. She couldn't help herself. The way Aurora made her feel—it defied any sort of reason. Just one kiss and she was putty in the other girl's hands and yet a voice in the back of her head cried that this had to stop. That it wasn't right and that her family would never accept her romantic relationship with another girl—even if Aurora was the most perfect girl in all the world—there was no way. It just wasn't done. Mulan was expected to marry one day. Preferably a nice boy with a trade who could take care of her and maybe help her run the restaurant if one of her cousins didn't want to do it. She knew that even in Asia, lesbian relationships weren't unheard of. Frowned upon, shamed, yes, but unheard of or undoable no.

Still, that didn't make Mulan _want _to take on or shame her family just for the love of this one girl who might leave her one day anyway.

Mulan looked away from the joy in Aurora's eyes, not wanting to encourage it any more than she knew was fair.

"That was amazing. You are amazing," Aurora gasped out between breaths of warm air.

Mulan's cheeks colored, but the embarrassment wasn't enough to warn away the smile that was still on her face.

"You're not bad yourself," she whispered, raising her gaze again for the briefest of moments before dropping it again.

"What's wrong?" Aurora asked before she could stop herself.

Mulan's dark eyes met hers again, this time they were wide and disbelieving.

"Are you serious?" Mulan asked, more sharply than she meant to. "What's wrong? Oh, I don't know. Maybe the fact that we made out last Friday after school and kissed again today or the fact that we're both girls and friends at that and that—this," she said, gesturing between the two of them, "whatever this is—might ruin our friendship beyond repair. Everything about what's happening with us right now is wrong, why don't you see that?"

Aurora's expression sobered, but the newfound joy in her eyes didn't go away.

"Just listen," she began calmly, clasping Mulan's hands in her own as if hanging onto them for dear life. "I spent the whole weekend thinking about what's going on between us. At first I freaked out a little. I've only ever liked boys before. I never thought it was possible for me to, you know, like another girl that way, but I _do_ like you a lot. I've always sort of liked you—I just didn't realize that I liked you in _that _way until now and I—I would like to see where this goes. I would like to try and just—would you like to go on a date with me?"

The last sentence just sort of rushed out of her mouth and hit both girls like a gust of cold wind, but even though Aurora looked about as surprised as Mulan felt, she stood by her words and didn't try to take them back. Mulan opened her mouth then closed it again without any words coming out. She didn't know what to say. Was Aurora serious? Did she really want to date her and see where things went with them? Wasn't she scared about what other people would say once they found out about them (and they would find out—secrets in a small town didn't remain secrets for very long)? Wasn't she scared about what her _parents_ would say? Or their friends?

Jade probably wouldn't care seeing as how she has two dads and they'd left their own countries behind to be together, but Hana would probably be mortified and Faleen would probably start asking all kinds of inappropriate questions about what sort of obscenely intimate things they got up to in their private time.

Just—no—nothing that came out of this could ever be good. Yet, even as Mulan convinced herself that her fears were valid and justified, another thought raced to the forefront of her mind, one that shouldn't have taken precedence over the doubts being lobbed around like volleyballs in her head, but it did.

"Why? I mean," Mulan clarified shyly when Aurora became confused, "why do you like me?"

Aurora's expression softened and she squeezed Mulan's hands a little tighter within her grip.

"Why wouldn't anyone like you? You're smart and beautiful and smoking hot and loyal and brave. You do things—sweet things—even when you look like you'd rather be doing anything else, just because it makes someone you care about happy. You're strong—you don't let anyone take you or your loved ones for granted. You're brave—you always stand up for me, even if I am in the wrong and I deserve being heckled by someone, you don't back down and you make me feel safe and alive and cared for without even trying and you deserve someone who will make you feel the same way every minute of every day."

When Aurora finished, she sealed her declaration with another kiss. But unlike the first, this one was deep, impassioned; claiming, wanting. Mulan reacted almost immediately to the feel of Aurora's lips on hers again. Something inside of her had broken down at Aurora's words—a barrier she had never known had existed. A thing that kept her emotions confined and manageable and kept her from getting too involved in situations that might've allowed her to be hurt by the callousness of others and without that barrier—part of her soul lunged forward to merge with Aurora's, hot and hungry.

Almost automatically, Mulan took control of the kiss, flipping their positions so that Aurora was now pressed up against the wall and Mulan's body was pressed up again hers. Aurora's hands relinquished their grip on Mulan's and she threaded her fingers through her dark wavy hair, which Mulan had thankfully left down today while Mulan's hands gripped at the belt of her jeans as if it were a lifeline. Tentatively, Mulan bit down on Aurora's bottom lip and pulled, gently opening the other girl's willing mouth to further exploration.

Aurora groaned when their tongues met. She'd kissed a few boys before in her short lifetime, but it had never felt this good. The not-so-subtle forcefulness of their dry lips and inexperienced mouths had always left something to be desired in those encounters and now Aurora knew what had been missing. The gentle sensuousness of another girl's mouth, not clashing or fighting with hers for dominance, but merging with hers as if they had been made for one another ignited a fire in Aurora's blood that no other kiss had ever kindled and she wanted more.

Without her consent, one of the smaller brunette's hands slid to apex of Mulan's skull and then lightly scraped downward through the fleece-soft locks as if messaging her. The small encouraging gesture was answered as Mulan gripped Aurora's waist tighter and drove her tongue deeper into the other girl's mouth. Both of them needed to breathe, but neither one of them seemed ready to relinquish the embrace just yet and go back to the wider world.

Finally, it was Mulan who surrendered Aurora's kiss swollen lips and leaned their foreheads together to catch her breath. Time stood still only for a moment longer. Their own little world had been abandoned in favor of survival and now they were both faced with the cold wash of reality—or at least Mulan was.

Finding an inner strength, Mulan pulled away. When Aurora opened her eyes, the other girl was looking at her with sad eyes and backing away from her slowly.

"Mulan, what—"

Mulan shook her head, her voice only a whisper laced with regret and fear, "I'm sorry."

Then she ran, crossing the street, and disappearing through the front door of her family's restaurant, leaving Aurora feeling cold and alone as if the most awe inspiring experience in both of their lives had never happened to begin with.

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_**Please read and review! Hope everyone liked it. I plan on continuing this, but not before I find out what you all thought of it. Leave a comment or no further chapters for you. O-O Wahahahaha! ;)**_


	2. Scorch the Sands, Break the Glass

**Two: Scorch the Sands; Break the Glass**

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In Ruby's opinion, liver and onions needed to be removed from the weekly menu.

Permanently.

Part of her—the part of her that valued her sanity too much to argue with Granny about her cooking—didn't mind all that much. However, the other part of her that had to serve the potent irony smelling concoction to Leroy and Dr. Whale, who praised the strongly flavored dish for its protein content, was definitely committed to the mutiny of getting rid of the experience forever.

Of course it could just be the monotony of a ten hour shift and the constant scent and accompaniment of grease everywhere she looked.

Having had enough for a bit, Ruby threw her apron on the front counter and shouted to Granny and the other servers that she was taking her break now. Then she'd grabbed her red plaid pea coat from the rack by the front door and sauntered out into the early autumn chill before Granny could stop her.

At twenty-two, there had to be more to life than wiping down tables, cleaning out oil fryers, and having your butt pinched by ever low life letch who ever paid a tab and then getting tipped for it to boot, like she was some sort of prostitute who dressed in skimpy things because she was _asking _for them to grab her ass! There was a difference between liking sex when she had it because it was fun and it felt good and banging every Tom, Dick, and sleaze ball just because she could. Yet almost everyone in town who saw her adventurous outfits or knew her reputation failed to distinguish between the strong-willed, confident young woman Ruby was and whoredom and Ruby was fed up.

Ruby had always been comfortable in her own skin. She didn't know why and for the most part, she didn't care. All she knew was that while other kids her age were figuring out disturbing facts about their maturing forms and the feelings that accompanied them, Ruby was in tune with every subtlety, every nuance in her body almost before it happened. It was like she had something inside of herself—an awareness that was practically primal—which made everything about herself and the people surrounding herself easy to deduce. Like being to smell—as disgusting as it was—whether a girl was on her rag or pinpoint the spicy smell of sex on a couple who, despite showering afterwards, still smelled like they'd spent the morning fucking like rabbits hidden beneath a veneer of cheap soap.

In short, it had never been easy for Ruby to _be_ Ruby and as of now, she was through trying.

Grumpily, she kicked at the sidewalk beneath her feet with her boots, as if abusing the neutral pavement would give her the sense of normalcy she'd always desired. But nothing changed.

"A girl like you is too beautiful to wear a frown like that all of the time."

Usually, those sorts of one liners came from Dr. Whale trying to perv his way into her pencil skirts, but this voice was lighter, frothier, and definitely female. Ruby turned. Spending her life working at Granny's, she'd thought she'd met everyone in town at one time or another, but the woman standing before her wasn't one of the yokel locals and Ruby had never been so thankful for anything in her life.

Ruby grinned despite her former glumness and pointed conspiratorially at the young brunette who was just a tad bit shorter than her, but beautiful beyond words and dressed to kill.

"Pot meet kettle," she said.

"I haven't frowned today since I saw you brooding over here," Lacey replied, slowly sauntering up the sidewalk towards Ruby like she owned it. "So how did you know I was in a bad mood before?"

Ruby grinned, "I didn't. You just told me."

Lacey nodded, "Crafty, in a sexy sort of way. So, you're out here crying in your nachos over, what? A guy? Believe me, honey, when I say he's so not worth it if he gave up on a girl with a body like yours."

Lacey stepped forward, stretching her hand out to unapologetically tuck a dark strand of Ruby's hair behind her ear.

"I'm Lacey."

Ruby didn't know what to say. She knew she had to introduce herself , but this girl's forwardness was slightly off putting. Instead, a rare blush just worked it's ways up Ruby's cheeks as she stood her ground.

"Ruby Lucas."

"Ruby, huh?" Lacey repeated as if tasting the name on her tongue, "care if I call you Red?"

Ruby surprised herself, leaning forward so that her gaze locked boldly with Lacey's.

"You can call me whatever you want so long as you say it with a smile on your face," she said.

This encouraged Lacey and she closed the distance between them, daring to let her full lips briefly graze Ruby's cheek in an uncharacteristic brush of intimacy before stepping back. Walking backwards, Lacey had a smirk on her face like the Cheshire cat as she gave finally gave Ruby space.

"I have a rule that I don't usually kiss anyone unless they start something, but you made me want to break it." She admitted with a wink, stopping to stand a few feet away. "Let's hope you're worth it, Red."

"Where are you going?"

"I've got a prior engagement, but swing by the Rabbit Hole tonight at ten if you really want to see me in action. It was nice meeting you, Red."

With that, Lacey turned around and walked back down the street in the direction she'd come from. Ruby was left staring after her, feeling like she was a house left standing in the wake of a tornado.

* * *

"A beach theme?!" Faleen shrieked, practically ripping the poster from its sticky moorings. "Really?!"

"How original," Jade groaned, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What's beach themed?" Aurora asked, approaching with Hana from the opposite direction.

The four girls were gathered by the wall in the humanities wing, a round buoy that the flow of bodies had to meander around on their way to their next classes before the bell rang.

"Homecoming!" Faleen screeched, a little too loudly. "The student council chose a beach theme this year. Isn't it exciting?"

"Down girl," Jade quieted her, "we still have a month to wait. You don't want to give yourself a heart attack before the dance even begins do you?"

Aurora drowned out the rest of Faleen's excited yammering as she stood up on her toes slightly to take in all of the faces swirling around them. Usually, the five of them met up at least a couple of times during the day in between classes because they were usually in the same wings at similar times, but today Aurora had only see three of her friends. The fourth was conspicuously absent.

Mulan.

Mulan was missing. She'd noticed her absence that morning before the first bell, but she'd just assumed Mulan had already been in her first classroom already. It had happened before, usually when Mulan wanted some time to herself just to think or be anti-social. But Aurora always saw her during the day and yet, Mulan wasn't anywhere to be found. A permanent frown settled onto the brunette's face. _Damn it_.

"Has anyone seen Mulan today?"

Jade shook her head in the negative, "Tycha who volunteers in the main office Tuesday and Monday mornings said she called in sick."

Something inside of Aurora balked at the news. Mulan was never sick. Aurora had known the other girl since preschool and the only times she had ever missed school due to injury or illness were times when she had either been forcefully removed from school premises to a hospital or sent home for tossing her cookies on Mrs. Peabody's Doc Martens.

"Why would she tell you about it?" Hana asked, skeptically.

"Because I didn't see Mulan before first period and I asked," Jade shrugged before leaning over conspiratorially. "And because I think Tycha has a bit of a crush on me. Not to brag or anything, of course."

"Of course," the three of them echoed in unison.

They all gave into a myriad of emotions after that. Jade 's self-satisfied smirk spoke for itself. Faleen frowned at her, Hana's cheeks reddened predictably, and Aurora rolled her eyes.

"What makes you think that?" Faleen asked, absently combing her fingers through her hair as the crowd in the hall lessened, a telltale sign that the minutes leading into their next classes were waning. "Maybe she's just overly friendly and not good at keeping school secrets to herself."

"Oh, please," Jade said, rolling her eyes as they began to separate slowly and make their own paths down the corridor, "I've got a wicked hot body that appeals to all sexes, Faleen. Believe me when I say I know what I know."

The warning bell rang. Aurora settled into her desk in Mr. Kolwalski's biology class just before the last warning played. Though the lives of single celled organisms warranted enough attention to jot down just in case there was a quiz on the stuff later, the young brunette found herself unable to focus on any of the material being lectured about on the overhead projector. All she could focus on was Mulan and her conspicuous absence.

Was Mulan really sick or was she just faking to get around seeing Aurora? Mulan had never been one to shrink away from responsibility. She had always known what was expected of her and had met or exceeded every expectation without complaint, but the ways of love or the fear of it could change people; make them act strangely. Maybe that was what was going on with Mulan? She was obviously freaked out about the kisses they'd shared and what sort of implications a relationship could have for her.

Or maybe Mulan really was sick? Stranger shit had happened in the world right? Catastrophic things on the same level as Mulan actually missing a day of school like the extinction of the Dinosaurs and the Great Fire of London in 1666…

"Aurora," Mr. Kolwalski called, not getting an immediate response from the girl like he'd expected. "Aurora!"

Aurora startled out of her daze to find herself looking up into a small stack of white papers being held in front of her face by the biology teacher.

"Would you take one and pass it down, please?"

Aurora nodded and hurriedly did as she was asked. Mr. Kolwalski gave her an odd look before returning to the head of the class. Her cheeks reddened as the curious stares of the boy who sat ahead of her lingered on Aurora's face even after the teacher and the rest of their classmates had returned their attentions to the lecture.

What was the boy's name? Philip? Yeah, that was it.

The boy grinned before turning back around in his seat. The way he'd smiled at Aurora made her feel uncomfortable for a reason she couldn't name. She didn't know Philip very well but seemed nice enough. Zoning out again, Aurora's thoughts strayed back to Mulan and her deep chocolate eyes and soft, soft lips. Maybe Aurora should stop by and check on her after school? She glanced at the clock above the door. She had a few hours left before her day ended. Perhaps, she could collect Mulan's homework for her and drop it by the restaurant later. Then she'd get to the bottom of whatever was really going on with the girl.

The rebellious thought brought a smile to Auora's face. Yes, she was going to see Mulan today, even if it killed her.

* * *

Mulan leaned against the cold cement wall in the large storage room that occupied the back of her family's restaurant. The cool, dampness of the room relieved the fire scorching across her skin and forehead just enough to make sitting upright bearable.

Grandma Hua had been in their apartment caring for her for most of the morning, but when Mulan's father had left to supervise a shipment of shrimp being brought in from the docks, Grandma Hua had slipped into the mantle of militant business enforcer. The scourge of the idle and incompetent employee, Grandma Hua was more feared by her own staff than anyone else in town and for good reason. Just because she had other duties, though, didn't mean that Grandma Hua would leave her only granddaughter to convalesce alone on the couch upstairs without supervision.

No, where Grandma Hua went, Mulan wasn't too sick to follow.

"Exercise is good for the fever," Grandma Hua told her as she helped Mulan down the stairs from the apartment above and shuffled her through the side entrance so no customer would see the miserable girl and immediately abandon their dinner. "It helps the body sweat out the bad. Trust Nai Nai on this."

So it was that Grandma Hua had directed her to a wooden crate in the storeroom, leaned her against the comfortingly cool wall and gone to berate the good-for-nothing boy at the grill who always added the sauce to the cooking chicken improperly so that it would splatter back up and waste itself all over his apron. Mulan pulled the fleece blanket around her shoulders tighter and tried to repress a shudder at the shrill note in Grandma Hua's voice as it barged into her quiet refuge from the next room.

"No! Not like that! Look at how much sauce you waste? What do you think we are? Millionaires? Off with you! I will do this. You stir the vegetables."

It was an odd feeling, being home during the day instead of at school. Mulan had never willingly spent a day home from school in her life. There had been times she had been _sent _home for various accidental injuries and that one time in second grade when she'd vomited on Mrs. Peabody's overpriced shoes in the middle of answering a question.

And based on her current experience propped up against a wall, Mulan couldn't understand why anyone would pretend to be sick just to get out of school. Jade was the only person Mulan knew personally who'd faked being sick just to stay home and that was because she used to brag about what a good actress she was until her dads quit buying the act.

Mulan groaned as she suppressed a wave of nausea. Maybe it was better that she wasn't in school right now. If she threw up in front of Aurora—or worse—_on_ her, she would never live it down. Thinking about Aurora just a little bit made Mulan's stomach flip, but not in an unpleasant way this time. Against her better judgment, she missed the other girl's velvety pink lips and shining blue eyes. And her smile…her smile had no other equal in this world. Not even the bright burn of colors that haloed the world as the onset of night began could compare to the beauty that burned in Aurora's eyes, from the inside out as if detailing some inner strength no one was aware of yet. Everyone would be surprised one day to see what the girl was truly capable of, especially Aurora herself.

More than that, Mulan wanted to know her. Really _know_ her. Every inch of her inside and out. She knew better though. Mulan knew that a life with a beautiful and brave woman like Aurora wasn't something she deserved or could ever have and yet she chose to forget that sometimes. Times when Aurora would laugh at something Mulan said and the healthy glimmer in her eyes would kick start Mulan's heart into overdrive. Or she would smile and Mulan would feel the air leave her lungs completely.

"No! No, you don't cut vegetables like that! What are you blind? You want the customer to choke and Grandma to be sued!?"

Mulan sighed and glared at thin air as her grandmother's angry voice rudely interrupted her day dreams, reminding Mulan of what she so wanted to forget, that being with Aurora wasn't possible.

The first reason was rather poignant: it simply wasn't acceptable, largely because of the belief that a woman needed a man to produce children and secondly, because Mulan was an only child as were both of her parents. Loving another woman wasn't impossible, but it was frowned upon and Mulan was expected by her family to marry a man and carry on the survival of the family.

It was expected. She knew this expectation well. Mulan's mother had told her the story as a little girl of how her parents had arranged her marriage. Her father had come to her when she was twenty and told her that a neighbor had noticed her and that he would like to know more about her and her family so that he might engage her to his son. A dowry had been negotiated between the parents of the perspective bride and groom and the engagement of their marriage had been announced. Most people Mulan knew would have a hard time accepting that their parents' marriage wasn't perpetuated by love or at the very least lust, but it was a family tradition.

Besides, a marriage not based in love didn't mean that it _was _entirelyloveless. Mulan's parents had grown to love one another not long after their wedding and though Mulan knew that she might grow to love a future husband one day as well in theory, it wasn't a prospect she wanted for herself. In China, a woman's first master was her father. Then when she married, her master became her husband and her husband's parents became her own. However, Mulan had been raised in Storybrook and to her, the idea of having anyone lording over her made her sick to her stomach, but there was the every constant expectation that even though she was a girl, Mulan could at least marry well and care for her parents in their waning years.

Usually, this expectation would fall heavily upon a son, but it fell to Mulan as she was the only descendant of both families. Now, if it was in her nature, Mulan could rebel. She _could_ tell her parents that she doesn't want to marry a man, that she doesn't want children, and that she doesn't even like men, but all of those things—she knew—would break her parents' hearts and bring shame down upon them and their name. She didn't have it in her to do that to them.

She could always run around with Aurora in secret, but there were several problems with that idea.

One, was that keeping her relationship with Aurora a secret might make it appear that Mulan was ashamed of loving Aurora and Mulan was sure she could never be ashamed of that. Two, there was something cowardly about sulking about in the shadows and it was beneath what a girl like Aurora deserved. Aurora deserved to be paraded around in the sunlight, romanced in flower gardens, and worshipped fully like the beautiful goddess she was and Mulan couldn't give Aurora that without bringing dishonor to her family so the course of action to take was clear.

In all fairness to Aurora and her parents, Mulan would keep her feelings to herself. She wouldn't love and both Aurora and her family would be better off for it.

Mulan brought her fist up to cover her mouth as a hacking cough rose up from deep within her chest and momentarily incapacitated her. Silently, she prayed to the spirits of her ancestors that she would have the fortitude to follow through with her plan and do what was best for everyone.

* * *

_**So what does everyone think? Does Mulan have it in her? **_


End file.
